Word: dictatorships
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...notice any theological elements, pro or con. That's how rigorously Weitz has secularized and sanitized the novel. Pullman's conception of the Magisterium, the ecclesiastical hierarchy that kidnaps and tortures children (it wants to separate kids from their "daemons," their very essences), is now an oppressive but vague dictatorship that is part Orwell's 1984, part Star Wars' Empire. Weitz also excised the last three chapters of the first book, where the Church's nefariousness is made explicit. Referring to the filmmakers, Pullman told the Atlantic Monthly, "They do know where to put the theology, and that...
...tells Gevisser. But Coriolanus is a tragedy. The hero becomes a vainglorious despot. Mbeki is no Coriolanus, but as his paranoia and isolation reached new heights last year, Zwelinzima Vavi, the general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, warned the country may be "drifting toward dictatorship." For Mbeki, stopping Zuma, whom he had come to view as wholly unfit for office, seemed to become the end to justify all means. "The possibility of a Zuma presidency was a scenario far worse than a dream deferred," writes Gevisser. "It would be, in effect, a dream shattered." That...
...first electoral defeat since winning Venezuela's presidency in 1998. After facing an unusually strong protest movement on the streets of Venezuela's major cities - led not by traditional opposition figures but by university students who'd grown fearful that Chavez was moving the country toward a Cuba-style dictatorship - his reforms were narrowly beaten back by a 51% to 49% margin. The result, and Chavez's graceful acceptance of it, may well have set not only Venezuela, a key U.S. oil supplier, but all of Latin America on a far surer path to democracy in the 21st century. "This...
...pundits then expect to see just what kind of state the former paratroop commander - who controls the hemisphere's largest oil reserves and 12% of U.S. oil imports - really wants to create. Opponents insist that by nixing term limits he is crossing his own Rubicon into a Cuba-style dictatorship. (Chávez has already been in power since 1999 and his current term ends in 2013.) But considering that developed countries like France still allow unlimited presidential re-election, as the U.S. once did, that's likely an exaggeration. Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to the U.S., argues that...
...Both former leaders want the state of emergency lifted immediately and say they cannot take part in the election if it stays. If they boycott, the January poll will be a farce, and will strip away the last veneer of democracy that Musharraf has used to cover his dictatorship. But assuming the state of emergency is lifted and Sharif and Bhutto do compete, the big question becomes whether they can work together to try to wrest control of the parliament from Musharraf and his cronies. Sharif and Bhutto have very little in common other than a mutual dislike...